COMIC+STRIP



**__Burnt Toast-The Story__** //Burnt Toast// is a short comic that attacks Microsoft. The story basically starts off with a bored student who decides to make toast for the first time. This is effectively portrayed through the fact that she uses a recipe, from start to end, to make toast. She also is well equipped for any emergencies by putting on oven gloves and an apron. She is very excited to make toast, and wants to perfect the task. So she does exactly what the recipe tells her to do, step by step. She patiently waits for the toast to pop out of the toaster but when she takes it out, it is burnt. She does not understand what went wrong, especially since she had instructions, but makes herself feel better by realizing that the toast is better than any product Microsoft has created.

**__Burnt Toast-Write Up__** McCloud in //Understand Comics-The Invisible// //Art// discusses all of the ways and concepts that can be used in creating a comic. While creating Burnt Toast, a short comic strip, many of his concepts were used as a foundation for doing things in a certain way. For starters, McCloud is an advocate of using simple characters so most readers can empathies with the character (McCloud, 30). Burnt Toast uses an actual person rather than a generic face simply because most people make toast on a regular basis or can imagine themselves making toast. So the reader can be ‘put in the characters shoes’ in this case as well. None of the colors that are presented in this comic were modified except for the burnt toast itself. The images were taken in a normal kitchen setting where nothing was changed. This provides an environment that most people are familiar with and can see themselves in this particular setting. Toast that is burnt in reality is not that dark in color, but to emphasize the message of Microsoft’s untasteful and stale products, the color of the toast had to be modified to its fullest extent. McCloud emphasizes the importance of images and words being put together to express a storyline within a comic (McCloud, 155). This is exactly why Burnt Toast includes a combination of images and words that effectively convey the message of the comic to the viewer. Without the images, the story would not make sense. Without the words, the storyline of the comic would just show how a student trying to make something as simple as toast and fails miserably, which is not the point of the story at all. Just reading McCloud’s book did not do justice for some of his theories, but actually creating a comic, many of his theories were simple and clear to use. His theories were definitely used and dictated many of the decisions that needed to be made to successfully create Burnt Toast. Overall creating a comic strip was a lot of fun, and educational, with the background that McCloud’s //Understand Comics-The Invisible// //Art// provided us with.

__** Bibliography **__ McCloud, Scott. //Understanding Comics-The Invisible Art//. New York: Harper Paperbacks, 1994.